This instalment filed on Bloomsday. I'm making a special attempt not to
mention James J -- oops, that was close!

Harlan Ellison's lengthy dispute with AOL about pirate postings of
his fiction is settled at last. Although details are undisclosed, the
8 June release shows
a remarkable mellowing of the great man's fiery rhetoric: 'I have come to
realize that AOL respects the rights of authors and artists, and has a
comprehensive system for addressing the complaints of copyright holders. I would
not have settled this case if I were not sure that AOL is doing what it can do
to fight online piracy.' Donations to his
KICK Internet Piracy fund are to
be repaid, implying some financial element in the settlement. Ansible
was shocked, shocked, that The Inquirer marked this solemn yet joyful
occasion with the headline
'Trekkie Harlan Ellison settles four year-feud with AOL ... I cannae do it
cap'n, I cannae remove the posts'. This earned them a stern Ellisonian
phone call.

Thog's Astrometallurgy Corner. Pobjoy Mint is offering 'the world's
first palladium bi-metal coin', to celebrate the bicentenary of the naming of
palladium. Their ad explains that it was named in 1804 after the asteroid
Pallas, which was made up of palladium....

R.I.P.Robert Lees, retired US screenwriter who co-scripted
Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein (1948) and other genre films, was
stabbed and beheaded on 13 June. He was 92, and one of the last surviving
Hollywood writers who was blacklisted in the 1950s. The murderer killed again
soon after: a suspect was arrested on 14 June.

Outraged Letters.David Lee Stone was at Book Expo America,
in Chicago: 'Ursula Le Guin gave an incredible speech about colour in fantasy
fiction, and Jamie Lee Curtis gave an equally empowered but not quite so
incredible talk on how hard it is to be five. Surprisingly, Ursula came off
best.... Other Brits I noticed there were Artemis Fowl author Eoin
Colfer (huddled with myself and our shared agent at the Hyperion booth), Paul
Stewart and Chris Riddell, author and illustrator of the Edge Chronicles, and Ed
Greenwood, the Merlin-look-alike author of the Cormyr Saga, among others.'

J.R.R. Tolkien's work on Oxford English Dictionary
etymologies for the letter W is revealed in the
OED June
newsletter.

Thog's Masterclass.Zero Tolerance Dept (or, The Wages of
Washing). 'I merely refer you to our "Code of Light" drawn up in
the dark days of 1979 [...] if a girl comes home here covered in oil and grease
or the soil itself she can travel unmolested. Otherwise she is liable to get
picked up on a trumped vice charge [...] such as being a "person of known
vicious private habits loitering for immoral purposes etc".' (Paul Charkin,
The Living Gem, 1963)